'Town Hall' focused on Maher, libraries

ESCONDIDO  Escondido residents lobbied Mayor Sam Abed on Wednesday to open the city library on Sundays, clean up “trashy” neighborhoods and reveal more about former Police Chief Jim Maher’s mysterious departure last year.

Speaking during a "town hall" forum, Abed said Escondido can’t afford additional library hours and that city efforts to clean up neighborhoods include devoting $400,000 last month to a new anti-graffiti campaign.

On Maher, Abed said he’d be willing to give the public a thick city file on the former chief if Maher would allow it.

“I’m willing to release every page of it,” the mayor said.

City officials have never revealed why Maher suddenly retired. But last month they released his severance agreement, which included $150,000 in cash and a retroactive 14 percent raise.

On other topics, the mayor said downtown Escondido might not lose its post office after all, that construction may resume soon on a half-built apartment complex and that some school libraries might soon be open to the public.

U.S. Postal Service officials recently selected Escondido’s downtown office for closure. But Abed said he’s persuaded them to consider opening a smaller, satellite office instead of abandoning the area altogether.

The mayor said the half-built City Plaza apartment complex on Third Avenue and Escondido Boulevard has been sold and that he was optimistic construction would resume on the longtime eyesore.

Responding to complaints about limited library access, Abed said he was trying to persuade school officials in eastern Escondido to open up their libraries to the public. He estimated there are 30 school libraries in that part of the city.

“Now is the time to share our resources,” he said.

Abed said opening the downtown library on Sundays would cost $500,000 per year.

Resident Pat Mues said having the library open would breathe life into downtown, which is mostly empty on Sundays. She said opening for just a few hours would cost less than $500,000.

Abed said residents lobbying for more pool and library hours don’t understand how hard it is to balance a city budget.

“I’d rather have a balanced budget than provide everything to everybody and go bankrupt,” he said.

Resident Mark Skok said the budget would remain balanced if the city took some money from the Police Department and used it to open pools, contending that activities for youth are a form of crime prevention.

“Kids without something healthy to do are crimes waiting to happen,” Skok said.

But the mayor said parents who don’t have the time to raise their children and depend on government help to raise them should not have children in the first place.

Abed also said it was hard for the city to balance so many competing priorities, explaining that senior citizens would prefer faster emergency responses to more library and pool hours.

Abed spent several minutes during the forum sparring with resident Nancy Burian, who said she was fed up with the city’s “trashy” appearance.

“I‘m tired of seeing old, rusty motor homes parked on the streets,” she said. “There are port-a-potties on front lawns and they’re not for construction. When I see them I think of filth and smell.”